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On successful completion of the module, students should be able to:
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Explain basic terms used and positions taken in philosophy of religion (e.g., theism, deism, pantheism, polytheism, atheism, nihilism, scienticism).
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Elaborate on the ‘attributes’ of God (e.g, goodness, omnipotence, omniscience) articulated in the tradition of Western philosophy and analyse the problem of evil as a major challenge to belief in the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good God.
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Distinguish and evaluate different ways of proving the existence of God presented in the tradition of Western philosophy (e.g., cosmological, teleological, ontological proofs).
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Engage in a reasonable discussion about the nature and existence of God in light of contemporary theories of natural science, evolution and traditional religious thinking.
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Analyse the main components of an argument (e.g. premisses and conclusion) and discriminate between valid and invalid, ‘sound’ and ‘unsound’ forms of logical reasoning, noting the general limits of logical discourse.
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Translate everyday arguments into standard classical categorical or modern propositional logical form, and test their validity using the rules of the syllogism or the truth-table method.
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Develop an overall appreciation of thinking logically, cognisant of the main features of formal and informal logical fallacies (of ambiguity and of relevance).
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Demonstrate ability to select, think-through and present, in oral and written format, an argued response that is of relevance to set essay-assignment topics or final written examination questions.
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INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY 2
